Summer seasons always herald horror stories of kids and pets being left in oven-hot cars in the blazing sun, with police and passersby left with no other choice than to smash a window and rescue the slow-roasted prisoners. But, in this case, it wasn’t the child that became dangerously hot, but the toy the child had left inside the car.
Kim Staggs’s car had been sitting in the hot sun. The interior had become a pressure cooker, heating everything inside to an unbearable temperature. However, AC does its thing, and so she hopped in the car and made her way to pick up her 13-year-old daughter, not realising there was a molten, ready-to-explode toy in the back.
A squishy toy left to sit on the seats had heated, weakened, and expanded. Anyone could be forgiven for letting something like that slip unnoticed.
However, when her daughter jumped into the back of the car, the boiling toy exploded. Silicone flew out, over the young girl, sticking to her skin and burning.
Blood Curdling
Speaking to KDKA, Staggs recalled the event. “We weren’t even a mile up the road, and she just lets out this blood-curdling scream. I’m driving and watching the road, and she lets out this awful scream. My heart sank.”
She looked back to see the exploded toy and a clear sticky liquid over her exposed legs. The silicone inside had become like hot glue and was burning her skin. “The stuff inside of it was like this thick. The only way I could explain it was like a hot taffy after it had cooled,” she said.
Immediately, she drove to a local emergency room where they were able to treat her. Applying cooling agents and saline, her burns were taken care of.
Lucky Escape
Doctors said that the wounds aren’t too serious and they will heal quickly, but she was one of the lucky ones. Photos shared by Staggs online show just how much of her skin was covered by the heated saline.
These squishy toys have become a bit of a fad with kids. They trade and collect them. However, according to Staggs, the nurse said that some of them contain dangerous chemicals which, if they come in contact with skin or eyes, can be seriously damaging.
Staggs shared her story online, warning other parents about the danger of leaving these new toys in cars, especially in the summer heat. In the case of her daughter, she will make a recovery unharmed, but it could have been a lot worse.